Iran

Thanks to the U.S. pursuing diplomatic solutions, Iran no longer has enough fuel to build a nuclear bomb. Yet the kind of sustained diplomacy that led to this agreement often does not have political support in this country.

Diplomats celebrate the newly-negotiated nuclear deal with Iran. Austrian Ministry for European and International Affairs / Flickr

After more than 30 years of threats and confrontation that put the U.S.
on the brink of war with Iran several times, diplomacy with Iran has
made the world safer.

The deal dramatically shrinks Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran has ripped out 2/3 of its centrifuges, shipped out virtually its
entire stockpile, and poured concrete into the plutonium reactor so it
can no longer be used to make a bomb. For the first time in nearly a
decade, Iran does not have enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.

Inspectors have the access they need.

Iran is subjected to the most comprehensive nuclear inspection regime
ever negotiated in history. Inspectors have 24/7 access to Iran’s
nuclear facilities. Iran has to grant inspectors access to other
suspicious sites within a maximum of 24 days, if the U.S. and E.U.
demand it. Inspectors would detect nuclear material not only days but
many years after nuclear activities take place.

This deal opens the door to other diplomatic negotiations.

The nuclear talks helped create the political space for five U.S.
citizens to be freed from Iran in 2016. The U.S. and others can now more
effectively work through separate diplomatic channels to address Iran’s
human rights abuses and secure the release of the U.S. citizens still
detained in Iran. Sabotaging this deal would make it harder to negotiate
on these and other issues including Iran’s ballistic missile program and
de-escalation of the wars in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.

Congress must continue to support the deal.

If Congress were to impose new sanctions on Iran, it could put the deal
in danger and send us back down the path to escalation and war. We
encourage members of Congress to continue to speak out in support of the
deal and its positive impacts, and to oppose sanctions or other
saber-rattling measures that would jeopardize the Iran nuclear accord.

Iran and Diplomacy in the Middle East

This agreement was possible because the U.S. and Iran were willing to
talk through their disagreements in sustained negotiations rather than
ever-escalating saber-rattling. These talks have repercussions beyond
the agreement itself — Iran’s participation in the Syrian peace talks is
one important result. Iran continues to play a de-stabilizing role in
the Middle East, among other powers, which is all the more reason why
the U.S. must engage Iran on regional crises.

The U.S. needs to build on this diplomatic success in the Middle East.
Nonviolent diplomatic engagement with all the major stakeholders in the
conflicts in the Middle East — such as in Syria, Yemen and
Israel-Palestine — can help de-escalate and even prevent violence.